Monday, 5 June 2017

Seawatching from 18:45 to 20:30 was productive in strong southerly winds. Manx Shearwater passage (totalling 115+) remained steady for the whole watch, with the majority passing very close for Teignmouth standards. This boded well for my chances of seeing Storm Petrels, and sure enough, at 19:10, one flew south giving fairly good views. At 19:45, it or another flew quickly north at a much closer range, and hence I only managed to follow it for a few seconds. A flock of four Pomarine Skuas took off from the sea at 19:50, and remained in the area chasing Kittiwakes for the following 30 minutes. A small skua sp. also flew south along with 20+ Fulmar and 20+ Kittiwakes.

Robin Shute watched from 07:40 to 12:05 and counted 16 Common Scoter, 250 Gannet and 266 Manx Shearwater, bringing the day's total for this species up to 381+; a record count for Teignmouth.

Sunday, 4 June 2017

With the only birds of note at Passage House over at high tide being a brood of 10 newly fledged Shelduck, I thought I'd continue the recent theme of orchids, with these Bee and Pyramidal Orchids at Aller Brook LNR.